Nailless grain-door for railway-cars.



J. A. McNULTY. I NAILLESS GRAIN DOOR FOB RAILWAY CARS- APPLICATION mu) OCT. 10, 1914.

Patented June 15, 1915.

LML MAA this specification; 1

JAMES A. MpNuL'rY-{foF xaitsas o ry, MISSOURI.

NAILnnss sna u-boon?roaingiiitwapcans.;

To all whom, it may concern State of Missouri, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Nailless Grain-Doors for Railway-Cars, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of This invention relates to improvements in nailless grain doors for railway cars.

Hitherto, in shipping grains in box cars, it has been the common practice to close the doors of the car to r'etainthe grain in transit by means of boards or planks nailed across the doorways and on the inner sides thereof. This method necessitates considerable time and labor for applying the boards or planks, and when the cars are unloaded, it is necessary to chop out the boards at one .of the doors, thus destroying the wood used for closing the door, losing a certain portion of the grain while chopping the boards, and

' requiring an unnecessary amount of time and labor. Another disadvantage of the above described means for retaining the grain is due to the fact that the boardsfforming the closure bulge unevenly during transit because of the great pressure exerted thereon from the'inside of the car by the grain. This causes one plank or board to bulgemore than the next board or plank adjacent, and permits grain to leak through the gaps or openingsthus formed. It has fur-' thermore beenfound that in chopping oil the boards as above described, many of the nails or spikes are left on the insides of the car in the door posts, with the result that when the cars are filled with sacked material such as, flour, the sacks are torn by the spikes or nails with the resultant waste of the sacked material. Also, the continual.

of service while being repaired.

" sjietiaation of Letters 'rate nt.

' Patented June 15, 1915.

Application fl le djO ober10,.1914i Serial-No.- 865,988.

am also aware that there are a few grain doors which are permanently applied to cars and are adapted to be moved up under the roof or elsewhere out of position when not requir but such doors are invariably so expensive as to be prohibitive; they add greatly to the dead weight of the cars, and are generally'so complicated as to soon get out of service.

The object of my invention is to provide a grain door'for railway cars which overcomes all of the above indicated defects and objections; which may be re-used indefi nitely' which is adjustable to all standard sized oorways of cars now in service; which is provided with a relief door; which may be applied and taken oif in a small fraction of the time now required to apply and remove the boards and planks commonly used; and which is provided with hooks for firmly drawing the doors against the door posts.

The invention furthermore consists in the improvements in the parts and devices and device's-herein shown, described or claimed.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification, I have shown one form of my invention, and in said drawing Figure 1 is a sideelevation of an entire grain door showing the sections composing the same applied one on top of the other; Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of a portion of a side of a car showing the door opening therein and my improved grain door applied thereto, thesection being approximately on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view showing more particularly one of the adjustable hooks, and

taken on the line 3+-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a detail elevational 'view, upon an enlarged scale, of one of the adjustable hooks; and Fig. 5 is a detail enlarged view showing the form of'the free end of the hook.

In said drawing, the grain door is shown as comprised of three sections, A, B and C,

' the section A being provided with a relief door I). As shown, each section A, B and C is composed of two or more horizontally extending boards 10--1O having ship-lapped joints ll" and, firmly secured together by battens 12 on the rear thereof, and cleats 13 tached to the door sections A, B an object of the ship-lappedjoints being to provide a grain-tight joint, and one which will prevent any section bulgingmore than the adjacent section, thus preventing leakage during transit. Each of the sections A, B and G,at one end thereof, is provided with a hook 15 having an eye 16 at its inner end whereby it is pivotally connected with a screw-eye 17, the hooks 15 being eaclii a3 within a notch 18 formed in the adjacent cleat 13 for a purpose hereinafter specified. On the opposite end of each of the sections A, B and C is provided an adjustable hook 19 which is provided with an eye 20 at its inner end pivotally connected to another eye 21 having an extension 22 which passes.

through an elongated slot 23 in a plate 2 1,

which plate 24 is secured to the sections A,

B and C along the joints thereof, this being done in order to facilitate rabbeting the boards at their joined edges. On the inner side of each plate 21 each eye'extension 22- is provided with a washer 25 held in place by a pin or cotter 26, and, as clearly appears from Fig. 3, each eye 21 is provided with an end 27 which, when the eye 21 is alined with the slot 23, permits the eye to slide back and forth in said slot, but when the eye 21 is turned at right angles or crosswise of the slot 23, the end 27 cams or forces the eye outwardly and locks said eye in the slot in any of its adjusted positions. Each hook 15 and 19, at its outer end, has a right angledextension 28, the inner face of which is beveled or inclined as indicated at 29, it being understood that the incline or bevel face 29 is on the side nearest the door when I the hook is driven into the door posts 30 of the car,see Fig. 2.

The relief door D, as shown, comprises preferably a sheet of metal slidable in ways or guides 31 formed on the underside of two cleats 32, the door D being held either in closed or open position by means of a pin 33 attached by a chain 34:, it being understood'that the relief door D may be sealed by the ordinary lead seal when the pin 32 is applied as shown in Fig. 1.

In applying the doors, the section A is first placed on the inside of the car in the position most clearly indicated in Fig. 2, in which it will be noted that the cleat 13 on the left-hand end of the door is up against the left-hand door post 30, thus preventing the door section from sliding longitudinally. The hook 15 is then driven 'into the door post by means of a hammer or other suitable instrument, and in so doing it will be apparent that the inclined ,or bevel face 29 will draw the door section tightly against the door post 39 as the ho okis driven home.

'On the opposite end of the door section A the hook 19is adjustedto the proper posi-' tion, either to thatshow'n in full lines in' other door sections Band C are then applied in a similar manner, after which the car may be filled with thegrain.

In unloading the cars, the relief door D is first opened, thus permitting the grain to {come out through the opening, and as the grain empties out of the car the sections 0, B and A may be removed, the hooks being unlatched by merely insertin a hammer or other suitable instrument be nd'the same to pry them out of the door posts'. The

cleats 13, while strengthening the door sections as previously described, also serve another function, and that is to protect the hooks 15 and 19 when the door sections are piled one on top of the other.

From the preceding description it will be seen' that the door which I have herein shown and described fulfils all the objects hereinbefore set forth, and in actual practice I have found that my improved grain doors may be installed in one-fourth the time required in the operation of nailing and spiking the'common board grain doors heretofore generally in use ;-and the shorter time required for applying and taking off' the grain doors not only greatly increases the-loading and unloading capacity of the grain elevators where the carsarerun to, but also makes possible a quicker return of the equipment to the carrier. 7

I claim:

1. A grain car door closure including door sections or'panels, having their longitudinal edges resting one upon the other and adapted to extend beyond the door casing, hooks arranged on opposite ends of the sections,

those onone end being adjustable longitudinally of the panel, said hooks being adapted to be driven into said casings.

2. A grain car. door closure including. door sections or panels, having their longitudinal edges resting one upon the other and adapted to extend beyond the door casing, hooks arranged on opposite ends of the sections, those on one end being adjustable longitudinally of the panel, said hooks being adapted to directly engage said casings, and means for clamping the hooks at one end in adjusted position.

3. A grain car door closure including door sections or panels having their longitudinal edges resting one upon the other and adapted to extend beyond the door casing, and

tension hooks for securing the sections or panels in place and for forcing saicl secing when said hooks are driven into the tions 01' panels laterally into contact with casing. said casing, said hook having ends extending at an angle to their shanks, the inner JAMES MCNULTY' 5 faces of said ends being inclined outwardly, Witnesses:

whereby the sections or panels will be CARRIE G. RANz,

' forcefl laterally into contact with the cas- JOSEPH HARRIS. 

